52 factorial

for percussion quartet (2022)
Duration: 10’

There are exactly 52 factorial (52! = 52 x 51 x 50 x … x 2 x 1) unique shuffles of a standard deck of cards. That is an unfathomably large number—so large that, every time you shuffle a deck, you can virtually be certain that particular ordering of cards has never existed before and will never exist again. A simple deck of cards contains a nearly infinite amount of chaos.

This piece renders that chaos in sound. It is composed of 52 musical gestures, each corresponding to one of the 52 cards in a deck. (The card’s number is represented by the number of notes in the gesture, and the card’s suit is represented by the instrument on which the gesture is played.) A “dealer” will continuously deal cards from a randomly shuffled deck to the players, who will add the corresponding gestures to an emerging mass of sound. As more and more cards are added—that is, as the unpredictability increases—the piece will become ever more cacophonous. By its conclusion, it will be sheer chaos.

Because the progression of the piece is entirely determined by the order of the cards, every new shuffle yields a new piece. So, in truth, this is not so much a piece as it is a set of 52! Possible pieces. Which one you wind up hearing is the luck of the draw.

This piece was premiered by Chad Beebe, Josh Blessing, Meng-Chieh Chiang, and Matt Boyle at Peabody Conservatory in February 2022.